In our pre-budget statement published on the 3rd of December, we outlined our hope that the Scottish Government would fulfil its continued guarantee to young people, placing learners at the forefront of its aims. In order to do so, we asked for fairer funding for the voluntary and third sector that deliver vital services for young people across Scotland, including ourselves at MCR Pathways. In tandem, we also supported scrapping the council tax rate freeze to alleviate financial pressures on Local Authorities, who are our partners and corporate parents to many of the young people that we support on our programme. Finally, we hoped to see further investment in education & skills and social justice portfolios to eradicate child poverty and the attainment gap in Scotland.
Social Justice
As mentioned in our previous Programme for Government response, we welcome any initiative to eradicate child poverty and the announcement to scrap the two-child benefit cap will certainly help to achieve this aim. We hope the UK Government will work alongside the Scottish Government to implement this and that it will hopefully exert pressure to scrap this discriminatory policy across the whole of the UK to support families and young people. However, we are deeply concerned and disappointed that this won’t be enacted until 2026/27 when thousands are in need of this transformative lifeline now. The MCR programme prioritises addressing socio-economic inequalities that limit the potential of children and young people living in poverty; aiming to create an inclusive economy. In our recent 2024 Impact Report, we published that 71.8% of young people supported by MCR nationally are from 40% of the most deprived areas in Scotland yet consistently achieve increased level of outcomes with 82.9% of MCR mentored care experienced young people in Scotland achieving a Scottish Government definition of a positive destination compared to 69.1% of the care experienced young people nationally. These statistics are due to the early-intervention model that we operate on, breaking cycles of continuing inequalities that care experienced young people and others facing instability endure as they move into adulthood. Early intervention and prevention must remain central to the Scottish Government’s anti-poverty work.
National Insurance and ‘Fairer Funding’
We also welcome the Scottish Government’s aim to work with the Treasury to fully fund increased National Insurance contributions for local community and third-sector organisations who are facing sacrifices to their service costs. Charities continue to play a key role in delivering services, in partnership with public services, often going above and beyond to provide vital, transformative services to young people in both Education and Communities. However, due to years of underfunding compounded by Covid-19 and a cost of living crisis, we and many others are increasingly stretched. The addition of National Insurance contributions adds another large concern that could have a real significant impact, particularly for us at MCR Pathways. We, therefore, require further clarification as to which third sector and voluntary organisations will qualify for essential support around increased employer National Insurance contributions.
Earlier in the year, we engaged with the Social Justice and Social Security Committee’s pre-budget scrutiny on third-sector funding principles. Similar to many in the third and voluntary sector, we agreed that the budget needed to include the principles of fairer funding such as sustainability and accessibility. However, if this is not possible, we, like many others, need further clarification from the Scottish Government regarding financial commitments for essential service delivery that the sector provides for many in Scotland.
Education and Skills
We are pleased to hear the Scottish Government affirm its commitment to reducing the poverty-related attainment gap through the Scottish Attainment Challenge. We look forward to seeing how the Scottish Government plans to work alongside schools and Local Authorities to make sure our most vulnerable young people get targeted support in school. Whilst we are fully in support of the reduction of the poverty-related attainment gap, we would have liked to see further recognition of the attainment gap between care-experienced young people and their peers. Our 2024 Scottish Impact Report demonstrated in the last academic year, 65.7% of care-experienced S5’s left school with at least 1 National 5 qualification, in comparison to 92.1% national average. Also, 31.5% of care experienced S5’s leaving school without having achieved a level 4 in literacy & numeracy. We are concerned about the change in language from ‘close’ or ‘eliminate’ to ‘reduce’ in regard to the attainment gap across the board. The effort put into eliminating the attainment gap was and is not enough and the Scottish Government and by extension, our Local Authorities should be aiming to eliminate this gap as no young person’s ability should be defined by their background.
We are also pleased to see the continuation of the Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA). Young people aged 16-19 from more deprived backgrounds are less likely to be participating in education, employment and training. Continuing to support them monetarily will give them a greater possibility to stay in education and improve their life chances and economic outcomes. This aligns well with MCR’s plan to offer greater support to our young people leaving school with the introduction of our ‘Test of Change’ model; which will see young people receive mentoring through these vital transitions.
Alongside the continuation of EMA, we are pleased to see the investment in Further and Higher Education facilities and skills development programmes in conjunction with the continuation of the Care Experienced Bursary for care-experienced young people to be able to continue developing their education and skills both in and post-school. We would have liked to see a commitment to the continuation of the Care Experience Bursary to support care-experienced young people be able to continue onto post-graduate degrees and diploma studies to support the Scottish Government’s commitment to allow all learners to enter, sustain and progress in work and improve life and economic outcomes, given several skilled roles require postgraduate degrees or relevant diplomas.
We are also encouraged to see the inclusion of the No One Left Behind approach, which includes care-experienced young people when discussing upskilling the labour market with a person-centred approach for priority families in Scotland.
The welfare of our most vulnerable in this country is paramount and there should be more early intervention support for them in education to mitigate the effects of further instability into adulthood. We are pleased to see the plans for better support for children with ASN. The pledge of £29 million to support the ASN Action Plan is a move in the right direction. However, more detail is required around such spending.
The Promise
We are encouraged to see the reaffirmed commitment to The Promise laid out in this budget, in particular, The Promise Bill that is due to be presented in the next parliamentary session. We are excited about the work currently underway through The Promise 24 – 30 to ensure all care-experienced children and young people in Scotland have a supportive environment to grow up loved, safe and respected. MCR Pathways is deeply committed to continuing and strengthening our collaborative approach to working alongside other organisations that support Scotland’s care-experienced population to help achieve The Promise going forward. We would also like to engage with the Scottish Government to include Scotland’s care-experienced population in the formulation of this bill and any work that will help implement and achieve the Promise by 2023; such as the Universal Definition of Care-Experience consultation that is currently ongoing, and how they ensure these have an adequate amount to time allotted to allow for Scotland’s care experienced population to be consulted and to contribute to any and all current and future work regarding The Promise.
Statement written by:
Jennifer Brash & Yve Barry
